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157
[1903
The Returns for 1903 (first six months).—So far as the returns for
the first six months of 1903 are available they show, when compared with the
corresponding returns for 1902, a very considerable decrease, for whereas in
the latter period 81.7 per cent of the infants, less those that had died prior to
the time fixed for the operation to be performed, had been vaccinated, there were
in the former period only 38.4 per cent. This is an enormous decrease. It will,
however, be very considerably altered before the final returns for the year are made
up, but that the proportion of successful vaccinations will be as large as in 1902
your Medical Officer of Health has grave doubts. He trusts that this may
not be so, and he would earnestly urge on those who have neglected up to now
to fulfil their legal obligation, to get their children vaccinated. The subject is
one on which he feels strongly, because he has seen with his own eyes the
results of such neglect. He has seen one of his dearest friends, exposed to
similar infection to himself, carried off, and he has seen the father of that
friend die soon after of a broken heart, because he had not only failed to have
his son vaccinated, but had also inculcated into his mind the heresy that
vaccination was a myth and a sham. Your Medical Officer of Health has heard
another gentleman, whom he knew intimately, bewail the loss of two children,
and he has heard him in the Health Committee of a great northern borough,
accuse himself of being their murderer, because he had failed to carry out his
manifest duty. Again, he has seen in the hospitals, of which he has had
charge, every member of the staff pass scatheless through two epidemics, while
an unvaccinated woman, who on one occasion only gained momentary
access as far as the kitchen of the building was stricken. He has
seen all his sanitary inspectors and his disinfectors, with one exception, emerge
in safety from several epidemics, and that one had lied, for he signed
a written statement that he had been recently re-vaccinated, when such had
not been the case. He has seen young vaccinated children escape, while the
young unvaccinated have been attacked and died, or only escaped with their
life, greatly disfigured. He has seen the adult who was vaccinated in infancy
generally recover from an attack of small pox, while the unvaccinated adult has
generally perished. He has seen the disease in the one case generally assume
a modified form, while in the other it has been generally either confluent or
malignant.
His study of hospital statistics, in addition to his own experience as
a hospital superintendent, tells him very forcibly that vaccination exercises
a great controlling influence over this terrible disease. These statistics tell the
tale in such a manner that, unless people believe they are a tissue of falsehoods,
they must be convinced. But such a belief is preposterous, unless, indeed,
they also believe that a great conspiracy has been entered into, not only by the
Medical Profession of England but of the civilized world, to foist on the public
information that had no foundation in fact. The Prussians are an eminently
practical race, and they, seeing the good that would accrue to their nation,